The Miami Hurricanes Are Golden

Uncle Luke, the man whose booty shaking madness made the U.S. Supreme Court stand up for free speech, gets as nasty as he wants to be for Miami New Times. This week, Luke predicts a golden season for the Miami Hurricanes.

After two turbulent seasons as head coach of the University of Miami football program, Al Golden is taking the U back to national prominence this year. The defense's dominating performance against the University of Florida earlier this month proves Goldie is on the right track. In fact, the Canes are going undefeated. No school left on the schedule is going to beat Miami, not even in-state rival Florida State. And the U will play in its first BCS bowl game since 2004.

For a while, being a Canes fan was tough. Despite winning a share of the ACC's Atlantic division last year, the Hurricanes took a beating with blow-out losses to ranked teams, suspensions and dismissals of star players, and the still-unresolved NCAA investigation into the Nevin Shapiro scandal. For a minute, it seemed Golden was straying off the blueprint that made the U great.

But in the last eight months, he's shown he is committed to recruiting the best skill players from south Florida, which is why Goldie's 2014 recruiting class is ranked in the top five for all BCS schools. However, Goldie's gang still has a way to go before they can reclaim the Miami mystique that made the Canes the most hated college football team in America, with five national championships to back it up.

The U needs to work on convincing bonafide hard-nosed All-American high school football players who exude personality and style like former Canes greats Jerome Brown, Warren Sapp, and Ed Reed.

Those guys developed a tough edge playing for the grimiest schools in cities like Apoka and Jefferson, La. They came to play for the U because they knew coming to Miami meant they could express themselves. They were attracted to the Canes motto of "fuck the world, everybody is against us." Miami has lost that edge to schools like Alabama, Louisiana State, and Oregon.

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